Dysentery: Shigella, a bacterium that can adapt its breathing

Bacillary dysentery, caused by Shigella bacteria in the gut, is a major health problem in tropical regions and developing countries. Complications lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths every year, mainly among young children. Scientists at Inserm and the Institut Pasteur are investigating the virulence mechanisms employed by Shigella. They observed that the bacterium is capable not only of consuming oxygen from tissues in the colon to develop and create infectious foci, but also of adapting the way it breathes so that it can continue developing once the oxygen in the foci has run out. These findings, published in Nature Microbiology, open up new avenues for the development of antibiotics and vaccines for Shigella, which features on WHO's list of 12 priority pathogens.

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